South Bay Cities Genealogical Society

Promoting Genealogical Education and Research in Southern California's South Bay

Beginner's Basics

Birds of a Feather

by Connie Moretti

When you have traced a family to their earliest time in a particular area, it can often be difficult to locate their prior residence. It is important to consider the conditions of travel, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between the brigands and the bears, solo travel just was not a safe option. Either by river or overland, safety necessitated traveling in groups. Most often, these traveling flocks were not composed of strangers, but of neighbors and relatives. Not only did this group help to ensure safe travel, but often they continued to support one another in the new location. This leads to the concept of cluster genealogy.

A cluster is a group of people who interact positively on a regular basis. Often, on reaching a new locale, they will claim or purchase property near one another. They will serve as witnesses to one another's deeds or wills. They may be bondsmen for marriages or godparents for children. Learning to identify a cluster group, and researching all the members, can help you to further your own research.

This is one case where books of abstracted deeds or wills can temporarily assume greater importance than the films of the actual records. Witnesses are not indexed in the official records of the town or county, but the compilers of abstracts generally provide an every-name index. Once you have identified the documents your ancestor may have witnessed or initiated, you can order the microfilm and make appropriate copies. Some of these may include your ancestor's actual signature — an added bonus.

When you have identified your ancestor's cluster group, you are ready to trace them to a prior location. Now you are looking for places where all or most of the members of the flock can be found together. It may be that your ancestor was not afforded a biography in the county history, but a member of the cluster may be featured and provide a clue to past "nests." The birthplaces of the children, as well as of the group members, offer another clue to past locations. There may be a published genealogy for one of the families in the flock that will lead you to the prior location. Computerized searches of a particular state's records may help you to locate the previous home of your cluster group.

When you are stuck tracing your own family, focus on the members of their cluster group for clues to their origins and migrations. Using the techniques of cluster genealogy will pay dividends for your research, especially for overcoming difficult problems.

[First appeared in The Beacon, May/June 2009.]